If, as Rudyard Kipling famously wrote, “A woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke,” then what does that make the box the cigar came in? In the hands of craftsman and entrepreneur Steven ...

He works with the precision and concentration of a surgeon because, well, he is one. But in the basement workshop of Kirk Withrow’s Birmingham home, the stakes are much lower. The ear, nose and throat ...

Evidence of cigar boxes being used as instruments dates back to the mid-1800s, coinciding with the onset of cigar manufacturers packing their product in portable wooden boxes. One of the earliest ...

It has been said that no zydeco band is complete without a rubboard and an accordion. But deep in the birthplace of zydeco, an exhibit at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center features a different type ...

LITTLE ROCK — In a small and unassuming house in North Little Rock, a quiet and unassuming computer repairman looks at a stack of used wooden cigar boxes, rectangular and colorful. What he sees is ...

You are able to gift 5 more articles this month. Anyone can access the link you share with no account required. Learn more. SACO — Max Jones creates cigar box guitars, and has a personal connection to ...

You never know when inspiration will hit you. For Steve Armstrong, his moment arrived one evening last year while watching television. On the screen, a blues musician known as Seasick Steve set down ...

A cigar box is just a cigar box — except when it's a guitar. In the hands of Gipson Shoemaker III, the simple wooden box becomes a musical instrument worth hundreds of dollars and capable of producing ...

Pary Flynn's cigar box guitar made from an old sycamore tree that was on the Faucek/McKee Farm in Edwardsville. The farm is currently being developed into commercial businesses across from the ...

Charlie Rehfeld’s three-string cigar box guitar, complete with a 1960 black-and-white Texas license plate on the front of the body, is well used and well loved. Maybe not as much as Trigger, Willie ...